June 2004
Video Promotes Good Chemistry at Dow
How does a multinational
corporation employing tens of thousands of people and operating in more than
180 countries stay in touch with customer needs and keep employees
connected? If that company is Dow, it uses state-of-the-art video
conferencing solutions.
Dow is a leading science and
technology company that provides innovative chemical, plastic, and
agricultural products and services. With 46,000 employees and annual sales
of $33 billion, Dow serves customers in more than 180 countries. And,
according to Chris Duncan, Dow�s Global Leader for E-Communication
Technology, due to its size and scope, the company was faced with a serious
communications challenge.
�Dow started implementing video conferencing in the early nineties to
improve communications among its executives spread across the different
regions of the world,� explains Duncan. �As the company continued to expand
its global operations, video became even more critical for enabling
dispersed groups to work together.�
When the company transitioned from a regional organization a few years later
to a global business model, video began to play an even bigger role. In this
new organizational structure, any given employee could be managed by a
supervisor who lived in another state or even another country.
VIDEO AT WORK
�Video is good for companies and
employees,� says Duncan. �Helping people avoid travel increases their
quality of life and makes them happier to work at Dow.�
Video is used at the company every day for everything from connecting
business units whose members are spread out all over the world, to general
update meetings. It�s also vital for ensuring consistent practices across
business areas.
�We connect the Dow purchasing staff at 32 sites quarterly so they can be
sure they are all using the same work processes and approaches for things
like vendor selection and sourcing,� adds Duncan. �In a company this size,
it�s vital to have consistent processes in place.�
Dow also recently brought together its global legal team, located at 43
different sites, over video. This kind of face-to-face interaction would
have been impossible without video. And on another occasion, video reduced
what would have been a three-week round the world business trip to just two
days of virtual meetings. When the new Public Affairs Director took over at
Dow, she gained responsibility for employees located in 13 countries. Travel
restraints at Dow and her two elementary school-aged children prevented her
from making the three-week trip to meet with her new team and communicate
her vision. Using video, she was able to connect with all of her employees,
getting them up to speed and aligned with her goals in a matter of days
instead of weeks.Video is also considered a critical communications tool as
part of the company�s emergency communications plan. It played a major role
directly after 9/11, connecting Dow with its employees dispersed and
stranded all over the world.
THE BOTTOM LINE
�It goes without saying that the travel cost savings for Dow are
significant, but the real value of video is in the intangibles, like
increased productivity, faster decision making, and work-life balance,� says
Duncan.
Duncan himself is a prime example. Thanks to video conferencing, he�s able
to coach his son�s baseball team because he doesn�t have to travel for
meetings.
ENABLING COLLABORATION
Dow currently has 488 Polycom iPower video collaboration systems installed
all over the world. When the deployment is complete in the next few months,
it will total 560 iPower systems. Dow leverages the People+Content
functionality of the iPower solution for data collaboration during its video
conferences.
�At Dow, meetings tend to be very data driven, the ability to collaborate
seamlessly over the iPower systems is very important,� adds Duncan.
For video conferences that
connect more than one site, Dow has deployed 17 Polycom MGC multipoint
control units (MCU). The MGC also acts as a gateway for calls outside of
Dow�s converged IP network to connect to ISDN-based video systems. All of
the MGC MCUs are centrally managed through Polycom WebCommander from Dow�s
Midland, MI headquarters.
�We decided to bring multipoint calling in-house for the obvious cost
savings, but also for tighter security. We didn�t want an external supplier
responsible for the security of our entire converged network,� says Duncan.
�And using WebCommander to manage the MGC bridges from Midland works very
well. By controlling the operation here, I don�t have to have IT resources
all over the world for this function.�
LOOKING FORWARD
In the coming months, Dow Chemical will be evaluating Polycom�s ViaVideo
desktop video appliance for hundreds of desktops throughout the company.
First on its list is the Dow field sales group.
�Field sales is clamoring to get video,� says Duncan. �Not only will it help
them stay connected to the company since they work at remote locations,
probably 50 percent of their customers have video, so it gives them another
way to communicate with their audience.�
The company is also planning to enhance its employee communications with
streaming video to all 40,000 Dow desktop PCs. Polycom�s iPower will play an
important part, acting as a source for the streaming.
If you are interested in purchasing reprints of this article (in either
print or HTML format), please visit Reprint Management Services online at
www.reprintbuyer.com or contact a representative via e-mail at
[email protected]
or by phone at 800-290-5460.
[
Return To The June 2004 Of
Contents ]
|